David Orr

Cook County Clerk: Voter Fraud Fears 'Totally Blown Out Of Whack'

Ryan J. Reilly | October 25, 2010, 8:44AM

Cook County Clerk David Orr

Fears over the potential for voter fraud in Illinois -- where the state GOP has reportedly partnered with a variety of conservative organizations to recruit poll watchers -- have been "totally blown out of whack," Cook County Clerk David Orr tells TPMMuckraker.

Orr, a Democrat who was first elected as County Clerk in 1990, oversees elections in the suburban parts of Cook County. He said that poll watchers are an important part of the election process, so long as they follow the rules.

"Poll watchers are good. You have to separate the fact that it's good for campaigns, it's good for the body politic to have people there that are watching, I think that's important," Orr told TPMMuckraker on Friday. "The only problem comes if people abuse that, and we've certainly seen that in the past. We saw it in the last presidential election, we saw it in Michigan."

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Republican National Lawyers Association

Illinois GOP Worked With 'Birther' On 'Voter Integrity' Plan

Ryan J. Reilly | October 19, 2010, 9:45AM

The voter integrity program that has come to be associated with the campaign of GOP Senate nominee Mark Kirk was launched by the Illinois Republican Party, working with a conservative political action committee and an anti-Obama birther, Mother Jones reported.

Sharon Meroni -- who according to Mother Jones blogs under the pseudonym "Chalice Jackson" -- launched a petition demanding Obama's resignation for "high crimes and misdemeanors." Reached on Monday, Meroni wouldn't answer TPMMuckraker's questions, referring any inquiries to another representative. "My role is to recruit, and that's it," she said.

She did, however, say that the proper person to speak with was Curt Conrad, who is listed online as the Executive Director, IL Republican State Committee. Conrad didn't return a message left for him on Monday.

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Hans von Spakovsky

Hans von Spakovsky: I'm Not Working For Mark Kirk's Campaign

Ryan J. Reilly | October 15, 2010, 6:56PM

Hans von Spakovsky tells TPMMuckraker that stories about him training Republican lawyers in Illinois on election law as part of GOP Senate nominee Mark Kirk's efforts to send "voter integrity" monitors to parts of the state are "complete bullshit."

Von Spakovsky, a former Justice Department official who worked closely with Bradley Schlozman and who was nominated to the Federal Election Commission during the Bush administration, said he was in Chicago this week to speak to the local chapter of the Federalist Society. His speech focused on a paper he wrote about a year and a half ago regarding a decades-old instance of voter fraud, he told TPM.

He did not work with the Kirk campaign, and isn't working with any other campaign this election season, von Spakovsky said.

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Mark Kirk

Mark Kirk's 'Voter Integrity' Program Connected To IL GOP, National Efforts

Ryan J. Reilly | October 14, 2010, 11:00AM

Rep. Mark Kirk (IL)

So just who are the "lawyers and other people" that Rep. Mark Kirk, the Republican nominee for the Illinois' Senate seat, planned to deploy to two predominately African-American neighborhoods in Chicago and two other areas of Illinois on Election Day?

Republicans are being publicly mum in the wake of the Kirk revelations, and many GOP Illinois officials didn't return messages left for them Wednesday. But a week ago the state Republican Party posted on its website a request for volunteers for a "ballot integrity" program -- and just this week the Republican National Lawyers Association was conducting training on this issue in Chicago.

According to an Oct. 6 posting on the Illinois GOP website by Chairman Pat Brady, the Republicans were seeking volunteers for their "ballot integrity" program. Brady noted that "ballot integrity will be a key ingredient to our success, and we need your help."

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2010 Elections

Illinois Democrat: Mark Kirk's 'Voter Integrity' Effort Is 'Karl Rove Politics'

Ryan J. Reilly | October 13, 2010, 5:28PM

IL Senate candidates Alexi Giannoulias (D) and Mark Kirk (R)

Illinois GOP Senate candidate Mark Kirk is taking some heat from his Democratic opponent Alexi Giannoulias for bragging on a secretly-recorded phone call about his "voter integrity" project, which he said focused on two largely African-American sections of Chicago and two other urban areas in the state.

Kirk said on the tape recorded last week that he had arranged for lawyers and other people to be "deployed in key, vulnerable precincts, for example, South and West sides of Chicago, Rockford, Metro East, where the other side might be tempted to jigger the numbers somewhat."

Giannoulias said in a statement on Wednesday that he would have his lawyers look into Kirk's effort.

"That sort of Florida-style voter intimidation is disgusting, illegal, and smacks of the Karl Rove politics that Illinois voters are sick of," Giannoulias said.

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Mark Kirk

Mark Kirk Sends Poll Monitors To 'Vulnerable,' Largely African-American Neighborhoods

Ryan J. Reilly | October 12, 2010, 2:45PM

Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill)

In a private phone conversation that was secretly recorded, Mark Kirk, the Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Illinois, told state Republican leaders last week about his plan to send "voter integrity" squads to two predominately African-American neighborhoods of Chicago and two other urban areas of Illinois with significant minority populations "where the other side might be tempted to jigger the numbers somewhat."

Kirk's campaign confirmed the candidate was secretly taped last week as he was talking about his anti-voter fraud effort.

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